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Apple’s stagnant product lines mostly reflect the state of the computer industry
- mixedCase 10y agoGPUs are still subject to Moore's law; CPUs, while not getting much faster are becoming more energy efficient; SSD price per gigabyte goes down and down... It's not the state of the computer industry, it's Apple and the people willing to buy anything with its logo on it and justify it with "it's good enough". You know what's good enough? An 8 year old thinkpad with an SSD in it and maybe some extra RAM. And that one doesn't set you down 1100 USD.
- cooper12 10y agoThe fact that you say that a thinkpad with an 8-year old cpu suffices only proves the author's point. Why is it a bad thing when this is good enough for Apple users, but a good thing for you?
- tdkl 10y agoBecause they are selling components inside as new (+ Apple tax) and not per market value.
- rbanffy 10y agoOne of the points the article makes is that the newer components (mind you the parts inside are new, just not from the latest generation) don't have performance improvements that warrant the retooling and update. At least for me, Apple doesn't sell the fastest computers. It sells well built computers with a polished OS. With all the stories about malware built into Thinkpads, I am somewhat relieved there is someone building malware free solid and reliable computers I can expect to use for many years.
- pawadu 10y agoI think what parent is trying to say is that Apple charges $1100 for 4 year old technology, something no other company is able to do. I recently paid $90 for a six year old ThinkPad and it works flawlessly. If we are going to settle for old technology (which both you, OP and the author claim is good enough), then why not also pay less?
- tdkl 10y agoPrecisely. Apple just realized it can sell whatever they want at high margins and get away with it.
- pawadu 10y agoI don't think Apple needs to "realize" anything. They will try to sell hardware with huge profit margins and unless people stop buying them there is really no reason for Apple to change. This was what the Verge articles was trying to highlight, which in turn was what the author here was trying to criticize (?!).
- rbanffy 10y agoOr maybe we should realize that there is more to a computer than its CPU speed. Maybe battery life, build quality, reasonable display and field expandability have something to do with it.
- rbanffy 10y agoYou paid $90 for a computer that has been used for 6 years, not for a boxed 6 year old Thinkpad. You probably spent a whole day wiping the disk and installing an operating system before you could do any work on it. There is a limit on how low the price of a MacBook can go. It's not made of injected plastic, the display from 4 years back is better than most brand new laptops and the backlit keyboard is well-built and feels very good (even after a couple years). It's true Apple could have updated its only field expandable laptop, but, again, there is much more to a laptop than processor speed. You got yourself a 6 year old Thinkpad. Try to do that with a 6 year old HP, Asus, Acer or any other brand. You'll be lucky if they boot after that long.
- pawadu 10y agoBut Joel Hruska ignores the fact that Byford's original article was not about technology: "But there’s no excuse for selling four-year-old hardware for $1,099. (Yes, Apple charitably dropped the price by one hundred whole dollars two years ago.) The 2012 MacBook Pro still runs okay today, but not that okay." Furthermore, despite Joels claim the PC industry has done great improvements in the last 2-3 years: we now have significantly better graphics, battery life and security in addition to touch support and all that in low and mid-end segments.